


Unfinished Business

by francythat



Category: Nancy Drew (Video Games)
Genre: Brief Torture, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-03 18:52:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 6,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11538354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/francythat/pseuds/francythat
Summary: Events after Phantom of Venice and before Silent Spy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this feels extremely incoherent, pretty much nothing of how I had planned this to go is what actually happened, I just rolled with whatever felt right to me in the moment.

“Hello, this is Nancy Drew.” _Wow she’d actually picked up_! Colin thought to himself, now to not mess it up like he had with the tesserae. “Hello?” She asks. _Oh crap I took too long to respond!_  
“Hi Nancy, it’s me. Colin. Colin Baxter. From Venice.”  
“Oh, hi Colin! Was not expecting this, to what do I owe the pleasure?”  
“It is I who has the pleasure Nancy. The pleasure to congratulate you on capturing the Phantom!”  
“Thanks Colin but that was like, five years ago, I’ve solved ten other cases since then. Where have you been?”  
“I was a little tied up. With some art things.” This was true. What he didn’t say that he had been literally tied up. By none other than Samantha Quick. And his “art things” weren’t his tesserae. No, he was forced back into the life of Justin Beaumont. But he really didn’t want her to know that. Or did he? She could help him get out once again. Possibly. Actually no, she had that boyfriend, they’d never break up so she’d never need Colin. No one ever needed Colin really, at least not for good things. He sighed. “So what else did I miss these past years then? Were you able to recover your locket?”  
“Wow, I can’t believe you remember that!” Nancy exclaims, impressed. “I did recover it but turns out I could’ve let the thief take it. Instead I now have it as a painful memory that I don’t know what to do with.”  
“Why should it be painful?”  
“Because Ned and I broke up.”  
“Oh!” Colin replies, a little shocked but trying to hide his delight.  
“We got her, you can hang up at any time.” A voice whispers in Colin’s ear. A wave of dread washed over him. What had he done?!  
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Colin continues, “Any way I can help? Take you to dinner or the movies for comfort?”  
“That’s so sweet Colin, but actually I’m going to be going to Scotland soon for a history trip.” A look of glee came over Samantha’s face while a look of horror was on Colin’s.  
“Ask her about the case!” Samantha whispers gruffly.  
“Scotland you say? Tracking down ol’ Nelly?” He laughs half-heartedly.  
“Not exactly. To be honest I don’t exactly know what I’ll be doing.”  
“Well give me a ring when you get there, I may be in the area. I make a wonderful tour guide.”  
“I’m sure you do Colin. Goodbye.”  
There’s silence as Colin and Samantha wait for the click that Nancy has hung up. As soon as it does, Samantha is staring bewildered at Colin. “How did you manage to get such useful and useless information at the same thing??!” She wonders. She knew she should’ve used persuasive measures on Ned instead. “It seems if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Ok lover boy, let’s get ready to go to Scotland.”  
“What? I thought my part was over? I made the phone call like you asked and kept her talking long enough.”  
“The game changed so the deal changed.” She retorted as she threw a duffle bag at him. He knew he had no choice but to comply. For now.


	2. Chapter 2

Colin wasn’t so sure why he was so nervous. He had done countless hours of research picking the perfect restaurant. Not only did he need to impress Nancy with his fine taste, but he also needed a place that would give him an easy getaway. Thankfully, as he had actually met Nancy, he was able to choose the location for the dinner date that Samantha was forcing him on. He was finally going to be able to show his brilliance outside of the art world.  
Colin was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t notice Nancy approach the table.  
“I hope I’m not interrupting.” Nancy says as she sits down in the seat across from Colin.  
“Oh no, not at all.”  
“I was so surprised to get both your calls.”  
“I was so surprised you answered both of them.” He says honestly. Nancy laughs. He made her laugh! Oh happy day! If only they could sit here forever stuck in this moment. Their waiter comes up to their table.  
“Are you ready for me to take your order?” He inquires. Colin looks to Nancy, hoping to not overstep his bounds and speak for her. She smiles and nods. Clearly Colin wasn’t the only one who had researched the restaurant as they both ordered some of the best dishes. As their meals wound down, the waiter came by again and asked if they would like the check as one bill or two.  
“One.” Colin responds reflexively.  
“Two.” Nancy declares at the same time.   
The waiter smiles and turns to Nancy. “As you wish.”  
“I hope you don’t mind Colin.”  
“Oh, not at all.” He was actually quite pleased. This is exactly what he had wanted. The waiter came back quickly with two receipts. Nancy glanced down at her receipt which read:  
“Nancy Drew, you are in danger. You must leave with Colin now. This message will self-destruct once you leave this building.” Nancy glances quickly up at Colin who is nervously looking around. She follows his eyes until she see what appears to be a bug and a spy. How could she have been so foolish??! How could she have let her guard down so much! This is Colin Baxter aka Justin Beaumont aka ex-con! She could only hope that he was nervous about his escape and not about him turning her over to whomever he was supposed to be working for. Colin coughed, jolting Nancy from her thoughts.  
“Would you like me to show you to the restroom?” He asks coyly.  
“Alright.”  
“Right this way, sweetheart.” He says rather loudly as he presses on the small of her back, guiding her forward. Out of the corner of his eye he notices the spy start to stand up. _This is never going to work!_ He thought to himself. But just then their waiter went up to the spy to see if he needed anything. Wonderful, that ought to stall him for a little bit. He leans into Nancy’s ear and grabs her hand, just as they duck out of view of the spy and see the back door. “Run!” he whispers. They slam into the door and spill out into the alley. “This way!” He shouts as he pulls her down another alley.  
“Where are you taking me?!” She shouts back.  
“To a safe house now hurry up!” A safe house sounded pretty good to Nancy so she decided to listen to him. He led her down countless alleys, backtracking to throw off the scent, and borrowing various modes of transportation until at last they arrived at the train station and hop on the train to Loch Lomond.  
Nancy turns on Colin and exclaims “Explain yourself! Was that all really necessary?”  
“Yes, it was. I could not turn you over to Samantha.”  
“Samantha? Samantha Quick!”  
“Yes, she did not take well to you posing as her and she has been plotting her revenge ever since. This was the only way I could save you.”  
“Wow Colin, that’s really sweet. But was the exploding receipt really necessary?” She whined as she looked down to see the pocket of her favorite pair of mom jeans utterly destroyed.  
“Whoops. Oh well the safe house is well stocked with very fashionable clothing. Including some work by Heather McKay as I saw you looked stunning in her pieces!”  
Ok, so Colin hadn’t become any less strange since she’d last met him. But he meant well. She really hoped there were no tesserae at the safe house though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't decided if I'll continue this story or not, let me know if you'd like me to keep going.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as she closes the safe house door behind her she turns on Colin. “So, why are we here again?”

“We needed a safe place to regroup and figure out a plan to take down Quick.” Colin responds calmly to the somewhat irate girl in front of him.

“And how do you propose we do that? We have nothing on her besides intent to kidnap and that isn’t going to put her away for good, it’ll only make her more mad and we will have to repeat this whole thing.”

“Oh the kidnapping was just the beginning. She had written novels on all the torturous things she wanted to do to you.”

“Well that’s….incriminating.” Nancy really thought it was more disturbing than anything, but written proof of Quick’s insanity and intentions were definitely great evidence for her, if she could get her hands on some of it before Quick destroyed them all.

“Extremely. Everyone advised her against it but she didn’t care, she’s quite cocky.”

“Everyone? How many people were in on this??” Worry creeping into Nancy.

“By this do you mean the kidnapping, or all of Quick’s other schemes as well?”

“Let’s just start with the kidnapping.”

“Alright, me - the bait, Quick - the lead, the spy in the restaurant - his name is Oliver, the getaway driver - Marion, and the bully - Thanos.” Colin shivered at just the thought of Thanos. He had only been with them a few days but in that short span Colin learned to be deathly afraid of him. If his build or husky voice didn’t scare you, his resume sure would.

“So five?”

“Yep.” Nancy was somewhat impressed at the number of people Quick thought necessary to kidnap Nancy, and even with five people it backfired. She smiled to herself, she was one lucky, extraordinary girl. Unfortunately this meant that even if she took out Quick, there could be three other people to continue trying to take her out for Quick’s sake. That was not so good.

“Ok, tell me about the others.”

“Oliver is a local, just hired as a temp for this job, Quick didn’t want to pay to fly anyone else out here that she didn’t have to. I’ll bet she regrets that now. Marion has had her run-in with you before which is the only reason why Quick paid for her to come with us also.”

“Marion? Marion Aborn?!”

“Correct.”  
“Samantha hired a getaway driver that was someone that couldn’t make a getaway from me??” Nancy asked incredulously, she couldn’t believe Samantha could be that dumb.

“Apparently. She was very riled up to make you pay. I think Quick figured it would give her a slight edge this time around.”

“I guess it will help in that I already know where to start digging for more dirt on her.” Nancy mused mostly to herself. “So, what about this bully?”

“Nancy he really is quite frightful. I finished off the last of the milk one morning and he grabbed my neck and shoved me against the wall until Oliver finally volunteered to go get more milk. It was just milk Nancy!” Colin’s brown eyes were wide with fear. Nancy kind of felt bad for him, but not really.

“That anecdote, while cute, is not going to help me find out anything about him.”

“Sorry. Thanos Ganas, large guy, dark hair, doesn’t look a cinnamon roll and definitely could kill you.” Nancy let out a slight chuckle. Apparently Colin had gotten a little more hip since her last encounter with him. There was also no talk of tesserae yet either which also helped the situation.

“Alright, I’ll try and see what I can dig up with that information. How about you go scope out the area and make sure we are as safe as we would like to think we are.”

“Sure, I’ll do that.” Colin slid past Nancy towards the locked door, wanting desperately to brush shoulders with her but avoiding it thinking it would just make her more cross with him.

With Colin gone Nancy wasted no time whipping out her cell as she walked towards the bunk beds to sit down. While she really wanted to call the Hardy’s or her father, she knew she really had to get in touch with Sophia of the GDiF. She could only hope that she’d be able to get some more intel on Quick as Tazza, whom Nancy had gotten arrested with the help of Sophia, knew at least of Quick’s reputation and would hopefully help point Nancy in the right direction. If nothing else, Sophia could help Nancy navigate the governmental branches in Scotland to at least have Quick hunted down for the kidnapping.

“This is Sophia of the GDiF.”

“Hi Sophia. This is Nancy, Nancy Drew.”

“What is it Nancy?” Sophia asked, sounding urgent and a little irritated.

“Samantha Quick, the girl I impersonated to get in with Tazza, she tried to kidnap me for that!”

“You say she tried to?”

“Yes, but Colin Baxter, from the Ca I was in, helped me escape instead of leading me to her.”

“Mama mia. So you’re in Venice again?” Sophia asked somewhat hopefully.

“No, I’m in Glasgow.”

“Glasgow? Scotland?! Nancy I can’t help you if you aren’t in Italy.”

“I just need some information on Samantha, you have to owe me that since it’s because of the GDiF that I’m even _in_ this mess. Also any help getting the police around here to help me would be appreciated to.” She tried to sound very cheerful on the last part, knowing she was totally pushing her luck already. Luckily, Sophia seemed to feel guilty, or appreciative of the work Nancy had done for them, maybe both, because finally she agreed to do some work for Nancy. Nancy casually added, “You wouldn’t happen to know of a Thanos Ganas?”

“What?!” Sophia shrieked at her.

“Thanos Ganas is a thug apparently in on the kidnapping.”

“Nancy you are very lucky to have not met with this man yet. He’s wanted for just about everything in the books but gets away every time.”

“Of course.” Nancy flopped her back onto the bed, this was so not her day.

“You are also lucky that because of this, local agencies will gladly help you if they are able to finally take him down.” Sophia did have a point there.

“So basically he’s the least of my worries?”

“Basically…”

“Ok well, thanks Sophia, let me know when you find something on Samantha ok?”

“Will do. Talk to you soon Nancy.” Nancy hung up and dialed her father but it went to voicemail.

“Hi Dad, I made it to Glasgow but plans changed at my dinner with Colin. I avoided being kidnapped and now I’m camped at a Safe House. Got in touch with the GDiF who were very helpful so I should be fine. Ok, well, bye!” She was glad he hadn’t answered so she could push through the kidnapping attempt to the part where she said she was safe, would not have been as easy if he had picked up. Now, to call the Hardy’s, not that Sophia’s help wasn’t great but the boys Network was scarily good at having useful information for her. Starting to feel nervous Nancy sat up and started pacing around the the small one room cabin.

“Hello?”

“Hey Joe!”  
“Nancy! How’s it going?”

“Definitely could be worse. Colin saved me from a kidnapping so now I’m at a safe house.”

“Cool! My brother never stops me from being kidnapped.”

“Say what now?” Frank interjected as he lumbered over to his brother.

“Whoops?” Joe tried to pass off as he flashed his puppy dog eyes at his older brother.

“Well maybe it’s because he isn’t an ex-con so wouldn’t exactly fall into a kidnapping scheme to begin with.” Nancy half teased.

“Ok, that’s fair.” Joe responded turning back to the phone, avoiding his brother.

“Is that Nancy?”

“Sure is. Creepy Colin saved her from being kidnapped!” Joe added a little too cheerfully.

“Joe you are so lucky he is not around to hear that.”

“Where’s he at now Nan? Don’t you want to keep a close eye on him?” Frank questions Nancy as he grabs the phone from Joe, now pouting.

“I couldn’t have him overhear me, I sent him on a scouting mission to see if the place was safe. There wasn’t much else I could do. I do think he wants to help.”

“Once a con, always a con.” Frank murmurs darkly.

“Don’t worry I’ll be safe! He gave me some good intel on the setup which really helps. Which brings me to why I called, I need you guys to check on some people.”

“Sure thing Nan. Joe, grab some paper.”

“Way ahead of you broski.”

Frank rolled his eyes, “Ok Nan, what are the names?”

“Samantha Quick, Thanos Ganas, and Marion Aborn.”

“Why does the last name sound familiar?”

“That was Emily’s impostor guardian's name. It’s the same person according to Colin, I have to figure out what she’s been up to since she got out, I’m not as worried about her though. Thanos is apparently a big time goon and Samantha seems to be a twisted person, she is taking her revenge very seriously apparently.”

“This doesn’t sound good Nan.”  
“Tell me about it. I really don’t know what my next step should be, I only know I can’t live the rest of my life hiding here.”

“Sorry Nan, I’ve never been a part of a failed kidnapping, only more than my fair share of actual kidnappings.” Joe moans. “You have all the luck don’t you.”

“Maybe you just need Colin to lead you to their hideout? Maybe the evidence there will be enough to put ‘em away for a while.”

“Frank, I’m appalled you just suggested that Nancy rush in without all her ducks in a line, not even one in line! Especially when her backup is just Colin at this point.”

“Oh yeah... Well it still wouldn’t hurt to try and get some blueprints on their hideout, you’ll probably have to either break in or out at some point. We’ll get working on those names and hopefully you’ll be able to get the authorities involved some way or another.”

“You guys are the best.”

“We know!” The boys cried mockingly and hung up. Nancy felt a lot better after talking to them, now some things were in motion. Without all of her anxiety she realized how exhausted she was, she flopped onto the bed and passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt like there had to be some "phone characters", I love the Hardy's too much and I felt Sophia's involvement was necessary, at least a little bit. Also no idea why I preferred to refer to Samantha Quick as just Quick here. Also, I know including Thanos kind of throws off LIE but oh well, he really fits the terrifying bully type so why not?


	4. Chapter 4

There was a dull thud as the card table had smashed into the wall after Samantha had hurled it. She began to pace quickly in a small circle pulsing with anger. “She got away! How did you let that happen?! I should fire you.” She screamed as she came to a stop in front of Oliver. He stood still, staring into her cold brown eyes, trying to not incite her more. “And you!” She turned to Marion. “You let them get away?!” Marion was not as smart as Oliver and retaliated. 

“They left out the back entrance! I couldn’t see them escape! By the time I knew they were gone it was way too late to try and follow them, plus I couldn’t take both of them at the same time.”

“Uh hello, you were in a car! RUN THEM OVER!” Samantha’s face mere inches from Marion’s. Marion blanched and just blinked back at Samantha. While she had wanted to get back at Nancy, the maiming and potential death was supposed to be on Thanos’ head, not hers.

“I’m surrounded by idiots!” Samantha screamed as she stomped back to the middle of the circle.

Thanos attempted to stifle a chuckle, he failed. Samantha tried to give him a menacing glare, but she too also failed at that. She wasn’t soft, but she did kind of have a soft spot for Thanos. He just got her. He wasn’t an idiot and he knew it, he also knew she knew it too. He was playing her like a fiddle but she didn’t care.

“Also, why didn’t we put a tracer on Colin or something?! We knew he was sweet on the girl.”

Oliver looked slightly pale as he explained, “There wasn’t any good way to place a tracker on him without him being tipped off.”

“You could’ve lied, said we all needed one to keep track of everybody’s whereabouts. He couldn’t refuse that!” Her voice was starting to become hoarse, her throat was raw, just like her emotions. All of this work to have the perfect revenge on Nancy before she continued on, was now going to ruin the rest of her life. “Get out!” She screamed so they would leave before she would break down in tears in front of her team. She was so burnt out, she hadn’t slept in days as she was so anxious about the outcome. She wasn’t sure why this task with Nancy was taking so much out of her, much more than her other jobs, but it was. Her whole body began to shake as she broke down in tears. Suddenly there was a warm hand on her back. She jerked around to come face to face with dark brooding eyes. Thanos. He’d stayed to comfort her?  She might’ve swooned if she didn’t feel so unstable. 

“Sometimes things don’t always go as planned. It may not be great, but it will work out.” He whispered to her as he caressed her chin in his hand. 

“I can’t let her get away. She needs to pay for what she’s put me through.”

“Don’t worry, we will get her.” And somehow she knew the  _ we _ was just her and him and it brought a slight smile to her face as her tears slowed down. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure what happened, this just felt like it needed to be written. No clue where the Thanos and Samantha being a thing came from but there you go if you think VEN Samantha would dig that. She seems much more likely to handle Thanos than Nancy in my opinion.


	5. Chapter 5

Nancy woke up to the smell of sausage cooking. _What possessed Colin to think I’d ever eat sausages he offered me again?_  Nancy wondered to herself, remembering the “gift” she’d gotten from him when she’d met him in Venice. Food poisoning was _not_  going to make this any better. Thankfully she saw eggs also cooking as she’d gotten up and lumbered over towards Colin bent over the fire.

“Thank goodness you’re not dead.”

“Why would I be dead?” Nancy asked, thoroughly confused.

“You were asleep before I even came back from my scouting and were still asleep when I got up, I didn’t think it was natural for someone to sleep that long.”

“You didn’t check to see I was breathing or feel my pulse?”

“Should I have?”

“If you thought I was dead yes! How long were you going to let me lie there presumably dead before you did anything?”

“I would’ve brought you into town if you weren’t up by 3.” Joe was right, Nancy couldn’t rush into anything with Colin as her backup, he was pretty much useless. Nancy shuddered slightly realizing Joe was right. She would never tell either of the brothers this realization. She also couldn’t tell them about the conversation either, otherwise she knew they’d jump on the first plane out here to help her and she just couldn’t do that to them.

 

\---

 

While they ate Colin “filled in” Nancy with his scouting trip. He was overly confident that they were alone out here, but he had returned to tell the tale so that had to be at least something. She then began to inquire after the location of the hideout, the surrounding area, how he found out about this safe house.

The safe house he heard about from an old lady he did some art restoration for, she said she was the last one to know about it and it wasn’t going to do her any good anymore so someone should know the location to maybe put it to good use.

The surrounding area is untouched, it’s actually a wildlife preserve sort of a thing, so basically there is supposed to be very little human interaction. A very convenient spot for a safe house.

The hideout was in a large, abandoned cinder block building in the “industrial” part of town, at least twenty minutes past the edge of the city. The land had been developed to house large offices and manufacturing plants but by the time they were built, other parts of town seemed more suited for these buildings so they were left abandoned. So it’s a great place to hide out, not a great place to snoop without being caught. This meant Nancy would have to be incognito and very on guard, Colin wasn’t going to be great backup.  _ If only the Hardy’s were here!  _ Nancy thought wistfully to herself. No. She had to make due with what she had. Luckily the safe house had a few disguises so she could only hope her would-be kidnappers wouldn’t recognize her by just her chin. After that she had to send Colin into town on a most likely futile mission just so she could be by herself to think, he was driving her crazy. She tried to dial the Hardy’s while she began using the impressive computer she’d discovered in the safe house to look up blueprints of the criminals’ hideout. She even tried to Google Earth the surrounding area to pick out a place with the best coverage.

“Hey Nan!”

“Hi Joe.”

“I have all the luck. Frank is going to be so mad!”

“Why’s that?”

“He’s missing a phone call with you because he’s doing boring work trying to track down people.”

“You don’t have the scoop on the kidnapping team yet?” Nancy tried to ask without sounding too disappointed.

“Oh no we got that covered first thing this morning, he’s working on another assignment we just got.”

“Oh great!” Nancy was happy to have information, and to know that with a case, the boys would not be able to hop on a plane and get out here, to her relief. “Hit me with all you got Joseph.”

“Well for starters, Marion got out of jail a few years ago and appears to have been living a clean life, maybe she was biding her time, or maybe it was an accident she got involved, but I doubt it. Samantha is an odd character, she apparently has a variety of aliases, Samantha Quick is only the one she uses for dastardly plans.”

“And Thanos?”

“He’s killed people.” Joe half whispers. Nancy gives a small shriek. “Sorry Nan, I know it’s not great. Be extra careful around him. He’s mixed up in a bad crowd.”

“Will do. Hopefully I wrap this up with not contact with any of them.”

“Wouldn’t that be something.” Nancy lets out a small chuckle.

“Anything else I should know?”

“No I think that about covers it for now, let us know if you need anything else.”

“Will do, thanks Joe.”  _ Of course Samantha would hire a murderer for her thug, _ Nancy thought despondently to herself as she hung up on the younger Hardy. 


	6. Chapter 6

Nancy sat in the dirty used car that she’d had Colin pick up for the stakeout. She’d parked on the street a few blocks from the abandoned building that was HQ for Quick. The sun was setting and the glare on the windows made it difficult to see any movement in them. The building had an underground parking spot so Nancy couldn’t see if any or all of them were not at home. This surveillance was just to get an idea of when they would and wouldn’t be in the house, as obviously Quick wasn’t stupid enough to keep the same routine she’d had when Colin was still a part of the team. Mindlessly she started to braid a section of the long brunette wig she’d found at the Safe House, it was a little difficult with the wide-brimmed sun hat she had on top, but it was something to do that was silent. Her hour was almost up and she wasn’t sure this trip had been all that successful, she may need to rethink her strategy. Suddenly she heard a shattering of glass on her right. As she jerked frantically to the right she barely had time to register that a somber dark haired man was reaching towards her with a needle as she was soon whisked into unconsciousness with her last thought of  _ I hope Colin actually does something _ . 

\--

When Nancy had said he should be worried if she was gone more than two hours he hadn’t been sure if it was two hours of her staking out so that didn’t include her travel time, or if the two hours included travel. Because she could have easily misestimated the amount of time to get back, but by the time it was two and a half hours since she’d left and he hadn’t heard anything he decided he needed to make a move. Thankfully Glasgow is a pretty sleepy town, unfortunately there was prejudice against former convicts so they were less than eager to send an extraction team for Nancy. When Colin finally decided to name drop Thanos Ganas out of frustration, the authorities actually started to see the event with the same urgency that he was feeling. At this rate they were going to get there more than four hours after Nancy had left the safe house, Colin could only hope she hadn’t been caught instantly and that she was still alive.  _ Hang tight Nancy _ , he thought as he ran to catch a train to the station where he could then get a ride to the scene. His knowledge of the building was going to be critical for this mission.


	7. Chapter 7

Nancy came to in pain. Her head, arms, and legs all ached. Blinking to clear the fog from her brain she tried to scan the room. She was sitting down in front of a battered card table, probably just for shows of anger, she presumed,  _ or to hold torture weapons  _ she thought ominously to herself.  She was in the middle of a windowless gray cinderblock room. The only source of light was a bare LED light bulb hanging down just a foot in front of her. The room was almost a perfect square, except for a narrow extension in the far left corner where the door out was presumably. In the right hand corner the dark haired man was leaning against the wall nonchalantly, arms crossed, face fixed on hers.

“So you’re awake. Wonderful.” He sauntered towards her, pulling out a pipette from his pocket as he did. Then he was standing in front of her, staring down almost teasingly at her as he began to drip water slowly and distinctly onto her forehead. Nancy was beginning to understand what was happening and squirmed to get out of the man’s reach. She began to thrash her head trying to dodge the drops that felt like cannon balls to her psyche, sending waves of anguish throughout her.

The man clucked his tongue at her. “Hold still or I will bring this to the next level much faster,” he half-whispered to her as he reached for her neck to hold her head in place. “You wouldn’t want my grip to accidentally get tighter now would you?” He cooed in her ear. 

Soon tears began to run down Nancy’s cheek with the drops of water. So petrified, she couldn’t even shiver away the cold she felt. 

The drops were so monotonous Nancy had no idea if it had only been a matter of minutes or a matter of hours that he’d been tormenting her like this.  She decided maybe getting answers out of him would distract herself and him, from the water torture. 

“What does Quick want from me?” 

“To leave you as just the shell of who you once were, to be so disheartened never to stop hers or anyone else’s schemes.”

“Why not just kill me?”

“I do my job well enough that it isn’t necessary. It isn’t as quick but brings down the potential time in jail.” He gives a terrifying smile as he stares into her eyes.  _ That was so not what I was going for. He didn’t even miss a beat either!  _ Nancy moaned to herself. Even if Colin was able to find her before they planned to release her or something, would it be too late? Would the effects be too damaging at that point? A new wave of horror washed over her as she thought,  _ What if they moved me to a new location so Colin wouldn’t be able to find me?  _  Her terrible train of thought was derailed suddenly as the beep of a walkie talkie sounded from Thanos’ right hip. 

“Oy the coppers are coming, leave the girl.” A scottish accent rushed into the walkie, and just as quickly as he had broken the silence, he had stopped. Thanos smirked at her and gave her one last drop large drop on her forehead then dashed out the corridor. 

_ Was that it?  _ She wondered to herself as she began to shiver again, the twitching of her wrists and ankles scraping the ropes against her raw skin. She inhaled sharply at the pain that must have been suppressed during the agony of the water torture. The pattern of the drips still throbbing in her head. She tried to take deep calming breaths. She couldn’t think her way out of this, she had to rely on Colin and the police. She just had to remain calm, keep her mind from breaking, like Quick wanted, while she waited to be found. She hadn’t heard any sound since Thanos had slipped out the door. The walls must be so thick, they’ll never be able to hear me.  _ They better do a  _ very  _ thorough search of this place for me _ . Nancy thought to herself as she began to hum softly to lift her spirits. 


	8. Chapter 8

_ Do these people not get that a woman’s life may be in danger?!! Move already!  _ Colin thought, agitated at the agonizingly slow pace the extraction team was working in the building. They had refused to split up even though the building was over six stories and it took them at least twenty minutes in each room to make sure they didn’t miss a trap door or hidden room where they might have stashed Nancy. He tried to tell them that they hadn’t occupied the building long enough for them to have made such a place and as it was a former office building, the likelihood of these existing was very slim. They didn’t care. So he dragged his feet as he shuffled behind some of the officers in their inspection of the fifth room on the first floor. He only stuck with them in the off chance Thanos, Oliver, or Quick were still around. They’d kill him for being a traitor faster than he could say either of his two names. Thankfully there was only one more room on this floor, then on his request, they were going to move to the basement. With his luck, she’d probably be in the last room they check but he did not want to go through all of the other floors first, it seemed totally pointless. Suddenly a more horrifying thought came to him,  _ what if she isn’t here at all? What if they took her? _

\--

His worry that they had made off with Nancy wasn’t just gnawing at him, no it began to burn him like acid as they finished up scouting the second to last room in the basement. His heart began to race, he heard his pulse throbbing in his ears. 

“Don’t do anything rash.” One of the guys said to Colin as his face had turned ashen. “They could all be hiding in the room. We’ll go first like we have been. Nod if you’ve got that.” Colin nodded his head and was greatful that was the only assent required as he felt like there was peanut butter on his tongue so that he couldn’t speak or scream even if he needed to. The team nudged around the corner and down the hallway to the last door. Colin could just hear the door starting to open when there was a jarring scream. 

“Nancy?!” Colin cried, frantically trying to push the officers out of his way to get to her. The guy who had warned him to not be rash elbowed Colin in the gut and he doubled over in pain.


	9. Chapter 9

Nancy didn’t know how long she had been strapped into the chair but she knew it was too long. Maybe the cops was a false alarm. Maybe she was moved and Colin couldn’t find her. What if Thanos came back?! She shuddered, scratching her ankles and wrists again against the rope, lines of blood began to rise to the surface. Suddenly she heard the door begin to open. Her body so exhausted from fear she let out a piercing scream, frightened by the noise shattering the silence of her reverie, and the possibly identity of who was at the door. She heard a distant “Nancy?!” that was obviously from Colin, drenched in worry. “Colin! It’s me, help!” Silence. She began to squint towards the corridor for any sign of a rescue. She then saw a dark haired face lean ever so slightly into the room. She sighed with relief noting it was not Thanos re-entering the room. The head obviously decided Nancy was by herself as he then rushed to her side to free her from the chair. More men quickly flowed into the room, skirting the edges looking for any places for the culprits to lie in waiting. Finally Colin came and rushed to Nancy as well.  She was saved.


	10. Epilogue

Once she recovered, Nancy solved the case that she’d actually come to Glasgow for, it was a little difficult to do actually when Colin really did not want to lose sight of her again. She’d kept the car Colin had got, to use for the rest of her trip. As she drove the car to return it before her flight home, she gasped when she looked into the rear view mirror. Ever so faintly she could see written “Watch yourself, Drew” in the dirt of her rear window. And then it began to rain. The words of the threat soon gone, but not soon forgotten by the teen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if you wanted more Nancy/Colin. Maybe I'll try again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for my sister who, despite loving Ned and Nancy, also has a thing for Colin Baxter whose ship is almost non-existent in the clue crew? 
> 
> I never noticed the shadow in Colin's room in the end cut scene of VEN but while researching for this I came across that theory and ran with it. I get Samantha Quick doesn't really align with how she's portrayed in SPY but personally, Quick in SPY doesn't seem to be consistent with the vibe we get in VEN.


End file.
